Mediagazer: Romney's Pledge Puts Focus on Public TV (New York Times)

10:50 AM ET, October 12, 2012

Top News:

BBC:

Kindle Fire HD and Paperwhite sales make Amazon no profit — Amazon boss Jeff Bezos discusses the Kindle Fire HD — Amazon has confirmed it will not make a profit from sales of its latest Kindle tablet and e-reader devices. — “We sell the hardware at our cost, so it is break-even on the hardware …

Discussion: bizjournals, ZDNet, Fast Company, CNET, Mashable!, Telegraph, Forbes, Pocket-lint, Engadget, PublishersWeekly.com, Bookseller news and BBC

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

In self-publishing push, Amazon expands Kindle Owners' Lending Library to Europe — Amazon is expanding the Kindle Owners' Lending Library, which allows Prime members who own a Kindle device to borrow one ebook a month for free, to the United Kingdom, Germany and France later this month.

Discussion: Telegraph and Engadget

Steve Buttry / The Buttry Diary:

Facebook news-feed changes mean newsrooms need new engagement strategies — Changes to the algorithm guiding the Facebook news feed make it more important than ever that newsrooms and journalists engage effectively on Facebook. — We don't fully know how the changes work or what we should do about the them.

Niamh Ring / Bloomberg:

New York Times Gains on Stock Upgrade, Digital Progress — New York Times Co. (NYT), the newspaper publishing company, rose the most in two months after Barclays Plc upgraded the stock, citing increasing revenue from its digital paywall and a better cash position.

Discussion: paidContent and AllThingsD

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

Times and Sunday Times make U-turn over bulk copies — Papers break ranks with industry by selling copies to partners such as airlines for a nominal sum that are then given away free — The Times and Sunday Times have boosted officially audited sales figures for September by distributing …

Discussion: Media Week and Media Week

Guardian:

Guardian chief outlines digital future — The chief executive of the Guardian Media Group, Andrew Miller, has outlined how his company must change to be sustainable — Print still accounts for 70% of the Guardian's revenues, according to its chief executive.

Discussion: paidContent

Nicole Laporte / Fast Company:

Hulu Struggles To Survive The Influence Of Its Parent Companies — Jason Kilar's vision for Hulu transformed web video. So why is Hulu in trouble and Kilar rumored to be on his way out? Because his vision transformed web video. — It's an unseasonably warm summer day, and Jason Kilar is …

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest and The Verge

Alexander C. Kaufman / The Wrap:

Chicago Tribune Launches Ebook Initiative - but L.A. Times Opts Out — Tribune Company has kicked off an ebook initiative in partnership with Agate Publishing, collecting stories and photos from the Chicago Tribune and two other newspapers and selling them as digital long-form features.

Discussion: Digital Book World and MediaPost

New York Times:

Romney's Pledge Puts Focus on Public TV — It has been a strange week for public television executives. Meetings have been postponed. Trips have been canceled. And conversations have turned in urgency to, of all things, Big Bird. — The turn of events can be traced to Mitt Romney's pledge …

Discussion: Mediaite

John Paul Titlow / ReadWriteWeb:

Boxee's Anti-Cable Gamble Could One-Up Apple's TV Plans — Whatever Apple is planning to do in with TV, it had better get busy. Boxee is planning to launch the second generation of its streaming set-top box, replacing 2010's Boxee Box with a device that sports DVR recording and live …

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Frontline invests in interactive video for The Choice 2012 — In terms of online video, Frontline got to the scene early, making full episodes of the show available on the web back in the mid-1990s. Now the documentary series is experimenting with their online repository of video to try …

Discussion: Daily Download

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

From Digital Sweatshop To Perk Palace: Why Gawker's Nick Denton Started Spoiling His Staff — Gawker Media owner Nick Denton cultivates a reputation for being slightly evil. That image would suffer if the world knew just how, well, nice he's been to his employees of late.

Discussion: The New York Observer